Pete's swim blog

July Training Notes

Aches/Pains and Assorted Gripes:
Might as well get this out of the way so I can move on to more interesting things. A tendon in my right foot has suddenly become painful when I first kick in the morning. The pain is mostly in my big toe but I feel it all the way through the top of my foot. After warm up the pain goes away. Am I just getting old or is there some way to correct this?
Ok... enough complaining...

Swim of the Month:
This wasn't a swim of the month for an extraordinary effort or particularly difficult set conquered. This was purely for the location. All the master's practices were called off on July 4th due to... well... July 4th! Pools were open but they were crowded and a proper workout just wasn't an option. That is until I got an invite from Bob and Don to join them at Monte Sano pool. I swam at this pool a couple times when I was little and then again a couple years ago due to a similar invite. So, when the chance came around again, I jumped on it. Like many pools in Huntsville, this one was built in the 60s era (maybe earlier). But this one has a little different design. For one thing, this pool is 25 meters long and probably the only 25 meter pool within a couple hundred miles. It also doesn't have the typical 'L' shape with a diving board in a deep end separate from the lane laps. But the big difference is the view!

The pool sits on top of Monte Sano Mountain at about 800 feet above the valley in the picture above. It is way too relaxing for any kind of serious swimming and Bob brought a pace clock that didn't work anyway. The clock was there mostly just to say we had one... and it provided plenty of fodder for non-functional pace clock jokes. There were about 8 of us from our team and the HSA masters team. Surprisingly, there were not more. We managed about 3000 meters of swimming and being Independence Day, we did a couple hundred cool down with our hand over our heart. Turns out that holding your hand over your heart is not an efficient way of swimming but it is patriotic... I think.

When we were done, we got an invite for a 5th of July swim. Dave and I jumped on the opportunity but most of the HSA swimmers went back to the Nat for their normal Saturday morning workout.

I ended up "cheating" and did IM/IM/Free/Free on round 3 but went back to Fly/IM/Free/Free for the last one. I think this is the first time I've made this (or come close) wearing a drag suit.

Top 10 Watch:
The preliminary top ten is out and I'm on it for the first time (as an individual)! Of course, it is preliminary and anything could happen before final publication. I also got very lucky in that many fast swimmers just didn't swim the 1650 this year. I don't think my time would have been close the year before and I certainly wouldn't have made it in the age group above me (I get ranked with those animals next year). But I'm not complaining. With my lack of swimming background, I'm happy to be there at all. So, now I'm just hoping there are no missing swims and that all the pool measurements are valid.

That's about it for July. Next month, I test the murky waters of the Tennessee River.

It is pretty awesome. I need to look into the history a little more. Most pools of that era in Huntsville were built without gutters and all that I know of were 25 yards long. Community pools were a big thing as engineers flooded into the city in the heyday of the space industry. For some reason, the engineers on the mountain decided they would go with a 25 meter pool. Not sure why. They definitely picked the right site though. Not pictured is a shelter for large gatherings with a fireplace in the center, tennis courts and a large sand pit for beach volleyball.